MU adjusts to reality as the hunted

Steve Walentik

Monday

Nov 30, 2009 at 12:01 AMNov 30, 2009 at 1:00 PM

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — Richmond basketball players hopped around the court and slapped hands in celebration after the final horn sounded on their 59-52 victory over Missouri on Saturday at the South Padre Island Convention Centre.

They were happy to win the South Padre Island Invitational, but a big reason for the Spiders’ euphoria was that they beat the Tigers, a team that won 31 games and went to the Elite Eight last year.

“I always tell these guys, they’re not playing this team. They’re playing last year’s team,” MU Coach Mike Anderson said. “That’s why you saw the celebration from Richmond.”

Facing Missouri also brought out a strong effort from Old Dominion in Friday’s semifinal, a game the Tigers managed to win 66-61 despite a shaky finish.

“We’re going to have to understand that and combat that effort and come out more aggressive, because we know that we’re getting their best game, so we have to give our best effort,” sophomore guard Kim English said.

Ideally, the effort English is talking about would help Missouri control the tempo of the game, forcing opponents to play faster. But the Tigers (4-1) also have to win when the game isn’t following their preferred script, as was the case against the Monarchs and Spiders. That means executing in half-court situations, especially against zones aimed at slowing them down.

The aggressive zone defenses played by Old Dominion and Richmond combined to hold MU to 35 percent shooting in the two games. It was a lot harder for opponents to stymie Missouri with zones last year, because Matt Lawrence made 40.8 percent of his 3-point attempts. This year, English is the Tigers’ top perimeter threat but has been hot and cold in the first five games and made only 1 of 10 3-pointers over the weekend.

Perhaps more significant, no Missouri frontcourt player commands attention inside the way DeMarre Carroll and Leo Lyons did. They were skilled scorers who complemented each other well, and without them around, foes have followed the guards farther onto the perimeter.

The Tigers’ four forwards combined to score only 13 points against Richmond. Justin Safford had five of those but was limited to only 10 minutes because of foul trouble. Laurence Bowers had eight points in a reserve role. Keith Ramsey went scoreless in 24 minutes and did not attempt a shot, while backup Steve Moore missed his only field-goal try in 12 minutes.

“We’ve got to get some scoring from our forwards,” Anderson said. “Early on, Justin scored some points but then got in foul trouble. So that kind of threw us out of whack, but that’s where you count on guys coming off the bench. Laurence got us some stick-backs in there. He got some alley-oop lob passes, which I thought were available against their zone. But we just didn’t execute.”

The good news for Missouri is that the past two games spotlighted areas it needs to improve, and it’s still plenty early enough to address them. The Tigers will hope to show some progress when they play No. 24 Vanderbilt (4-1) at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn.

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